B.C. Lions legend Brent Johnson slims down, gears up in post-CFL life

Mike Beamish, Vancouver Sun07.19.2012

B.C. Lions star Brent Johnson (right) shares a light moment with his defensive line coach and mentor, Richard Harris, during the 2004 Canadian Football League season. Harris, who died suddenly last year, was a formative influence in Johnson’s life. ‘He guided me as young man and made me understand how to be a professional,’ says Johnson, who will be honoured for his stellar career on Friday at BC Place Stadium.

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METRO VANCOUVER — Brent Johnson’s presence has not only disappeared from the B.C. Lions roster, but in a few more months you probably won’t be able to recognize him anyway.

Following the decision to retire from the CFL after 11 seasons as one of the most dominant defensive linemen of his generation, Johnson has embraced civilian life and the physical proportions of a normal working man.

Cycling is his new passion now and, because of it, Johnson believes he will a shadow of the man he was when he terrorized CFL quarterbacks.

“I’d like to get down to 210 [pounds],” said Johnson, who will be placed in the Lions Ring of Honour at half-time Friday at BC Place Stadium. “I know that’s a very ambitious goal, but I’m biking a lot. I still need that competitive outlet. I’ve been doing the speed and power thing with football for so long. And now I need another challenge.”

Johnson, who played at 265 pounds because that was the requirement of his position, is already headed south because of cycling competitions such as last Saturday’s RBC GrandFondo Kelowna, a 142-km. distance race around scenic Okanagan Lake, where Johnson was among a pack of 1,200 riders.

In June, he was a participant in the Squamish Test of Metal cross-country bike race, which covers 67 km., half of that distance single-track and featuring 1,200 metres of climbing.

He’s no Ryder Hesjedal or Catherine Pendrel, the reigning world queen of mountain biking, just yet. But the overall calorie burn, and strain and stress on his thighs, hamstrings and gluteus maximus is just as profound.

“They’re fun, neat little toys,” Jackson said of his specialized, carbon-fibre road and mountain bikes, “It’s not life or death if I win or I lose. At the end of the day, I’m not picking up a paycheque for my cycling, and I won’t be any time soon. But it’s enjoyable and I still want to do well. I still put pressure on myself, but the good part is I don’t beat up my body too much doing it.”

Indeed, unlike many other professional football players, who give blood, sweat and sinew to the game, and feel the physical cost long after retirement, Johnson seemed to have been surrounded by a protective barrier.

He joined the club in 2001 — Johnson was a third-round pick in the 2000 draft, from Ohio State, one of those dumb-luck selections who rewarded the Lions for years to come — and he never missed a game, except once. That was to attend the birth of his first child, Roman, whose arrival coincided with the Lions game against the Eskimos last Oct. 29.

Johnson sacked 89 quarterbacks — a Lions team record — during his years with B.C., but the CFL life never threw him for a loss.

“I did get dinged,” he said. “But they were the type of minor injuries I was able to play through. Some guys get lucky and I think I got lucky. I honestly trained hard for the rigours of the game so I could be prepared for what’s coming, but so do people like Buck Pierce. Some guys just get the bad breaks. It’s unfortunate what’s happened to Buck.”

The hard-luck Pierce, the former Lions quarterback, now with Winnipeg, has been peeled off the field more than 20 times because of injury, the latest occurring last Sunday when he was pancaked by the Eskimos.

With each successive hit, the chance that Pierce will suffer from the long-term effects of the punishment increases massively.

Still, the worst-case scenario isn’t necessarily typical of the average football player, although Johnson and Doug Brown were anything but average.

Brown, a Blue Bomber defensive stalwart, retired after the 2011 season, just as Johnson did, following a remarkably similar career.

Both players arrived in the CFL in 2001 (Brown after spending three seasons in the NFL), both wore No. 97 and each helped re-defined positions normally manned by import players. The parallels extend further in the influence of the late Richard Harris, the avuncular defensive line coach who moulded Johnson and Brown in ways both professional and personal in his days with the Lions and Bombers.

“Doug was already established by the time Richard coached him,” Johnson said. “He got me at a different time. He guided me as young man and made me understand how to be a professional. He believed I could excel at this level. He was a coach, but much more than that.”

“Under the tutelage of Richard, Brent had to work his way up the depth chart,” Brown said. “That’s why I have such respect for Brent. I came into this league as a starter. Brent had to establish himself first, at a traditionally American position [defensive end]. He was pioneer in that respect. Coaches didn’t necessarily think Canadians were on a par with Americans. With the work he did and the accolades he received, Brent changed that. He’s the gold standard for Canadian defensive linemen.”

Johnson won the CFL’s most outstanding Canadian award in 2006 for the second time (Brown was the runner-up) and named the CFL’s top defensive player that same year, over Blue Bombers middle linebacker Barrin Simpson.

Although his attendance record wasn’t as spotless as Johnson’s, Brown, too, missed only 10 games over 11 seasons with the Blue Bombers and never faced the surgeon’s knife.

While others rolled around in pain, and had to be carted off the field, Johnson and Brown developed a great deal of pride in getting back up, returning to the huddle and getting ready for the next play.

The idea of attaching training wheels to the next phase of his life wasn’t necessary for Brown, who is still around football, as a CFL analyst on TSN, host of his own radio sports show on CJOB in Winnipeg and football columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press.

He imagines his football retirement is a much easier proposition than it would be for Johnson, who left behind the applause and the TV face time for good and has gone on to a second career as a financial planner with RBC.

And yet, Johnson insists the transitioning is happening, without undue regret and reflection, and it’s easy to see why it might be so. Humble, polite and straight-shooting by nature, he was not a football player whose validation and self-worth were tied up in his job, or whose ego contained lopsided control over who he is.

“I had to sort of break away from football,” Johnson explained. “It had become all-consuming for me. I needed to go out and find a new venture that I could find interesting and exciting. I wanted to bring the things I learned in football to another world.

“But I know I will be taking my son to CFL games when he’s older, and I will always be a B.C. Lion. I’m part of that organization. I was lucky to be a part of it. It was a big part of my life. And, as time goes on, I know I’ll appreciate how much I loved it. It was really an honour.”

Thus, it feels perfect in a way that Johnson is going into the Ring of Honour Friday night. For thousands of Lions fans, it was a similar privilege to have watched him play.

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B.C. Lions legend Brent Johnson slims down, gears up in post-CFL life

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